Show Business: The Ratings

It is not that movies are better than ever on television but that the new television series are worse. Last week, according to the latest Nielsen survey, four of the top-rated seven programs were old films, and not a single new-show was titillating enough to crack the top ten. The first-and second-ranking shows were parts one and two of Steve McQueen's 1963 film, The Great Escape—CBS had shrewdly cut the 170-minute feature into two installments, and played them on successive nights. The rest of the leaders, in order: Bonanza (NBC), 20th Century-Fox's What a Way to Go! with Shirley MacLaine (NBC), Family Affair (CBS), Gomer Pyle (CBS), Paramount's Fun in Acapulco with Elvis Presley (NBC). No. 81 and last: Good Company (ABC), F. Lee Bailey's impression of the old Person-to-Person show.